Secrets convictions cast cloud over Albanian leader's visit

The case of an army officer, an editor and a journalist who have been sentenced to prison for revealing state secrets hangs over a visit to Britain that President Sali Berisha of Albania began yesterday. The sentences underline the immaturity of Albanian democracy as the country struggles to emerge from four decades of nightmarish repression and isolation under the late dictator Enver Hoxha.

The affair started when an opposition newspaper, Koha e Jone, published an internal Defence Ministry document, circulated to all military bases, that ordered army personnel to hand in their weapons whenever they were going off duty. The document was leaked to the newspaper by an army officer, Romeo Licaj.

Mr Licaj, the editor of Koha e Jone, Aleksander Frangaj, and one of the newspaper's journalists, Martin Leka, were charged with revealing state secrets and put on trial. It appeared a harsh response to a relatively trivial incident and suggested that the post-Communist Albanian authorities were using security concerns as an excuse to silence their critics.

A court in Tirana sentenced Mr Licaj to four years in prison and Mr Leka to 18 months. Mr Frangaj was sentenced to one month in prison, but this was raised to five months after the prosecution requested a stronger punishment in an appeals court. However, Mr Frangaj - who, at 24, is one of Europe's youngest newspaper editors - is now in Greece.

The case shows that the legacy of Communist intolerance and intimidation is still strong in Albania. Koha e Jone, a newspaper that likes to make provocative digs at the ruling Democratic Party, said in a commentary this month: 'The situation that the independent and opposition Albanian press is experiencing is among the most difficult or, not to mince matters, the most alarming that it has ever ex perienced . . . This regime is scared of the truth.'

The Tirana government has also tried to limit the range of information and opinion available to Albanians by refusing to renew a contract for the BBC Albanian Service to broadcast on medium wave in Albania. The one-year contract lapsed at the end of February.

The British government may play down some of these issues during Mr Berisha's visit since it takes the view that Albania has adopted a relatively constructive stance in the Balkan crises of recent years. However, Mr Berisha has a couple of axes to grind with Britain.

One is Britain's tardiness in sending an ambassador to Tirana despite the fact that full relations have been restored after a long hiatus after the Second World War. More important is Albania's view that Britain is too pro-Serbian with regard to Kosovo, a province of Serbia where the 90 per cent ethnic Albanian majority suffers discrimination by the Serbian authorities.